No BJP wave in north, INDIA will get clear majority: Baghel

New Delhi: Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘400 paar’ claim as “hollow”, senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel said the BJP’s Ram temple pitch “would not make much of a difference” in the Lok Sabha polls and exuded confidence that the INDIA bloc will get a clear majority to form the next government.

In an interview with PTI, the former Chhattisgarh chief minister also claimed that the Lok Sabha polls will be Narendra Modi versus the “whole of India”.

He expressed confidence that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will get a majority to form the government at the Centre, while the Congress would be victorious in more than half of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh. Asked about whether the INDIA bloc was still strong enough to take on the BJP despite JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar switching over to the NDA and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee deciding to go solo, Baghel said, “Our natural alliance partners are with us, in fact, our alliance has expanded with the likes of Uddhav Thackeray, Prakash Ambedkar along with several small parties joining us.”

“So our alliance is strong, in fact, there are tensions in the National Democratic Alliance camp. You can see in Haryana, there is push and pull between uncle and nephew in Bihar (Chirag Paswan and Pashupati Paras), and in Uttar Pradesh also (Om Prakash) Rajbhar and Apna Dal factions are upset with seat distribution. So we don’t see anyone going with them and more people are leaving their alliance,” he claimed.

On suggestions that a Ram temple wave was being experienced in north India, Baghel said the BJP is giving the slogan “Jisne Ram ko laya hai, usko hum layenge” but everyone is the son or daughter of God. “Who are these people to bring Ram. This would not make much of a difference (in the polls),” he told PTI over the phone while campaigning in Rajnandgaon.

Asked about contesting from Rajnandgaon being a risk considering it is a BJP bastion, Baghel asserted there is no risk. “Will win easily, it is a very good seat.

Former BJP CM Raman Singh had been an MP from here but before that another former Chief Minister Motilal Vora was also an MP from here. It depends how one fights,” the former Chhattisgarh CM said. Acknowledging that since the formation of Chhattisgarh, the Congress has not won more than two seats in Lok Sabha polls, Baghel said there have been various reasons for that.

“But right now the situation is that the assembly poll results surprised people, they thought ‘how did this happen’. It was in people’s hearts that the government had to be repeated. So with the regret people have in their hearts that the government could not be repeated, we will benefit from that in these polls in Chhattisgarh,” he said. Baghel argued there was no wave in favour of the BJP in north India. “If there would have been a wave then its leaders would not have withdrawn their nominations after their name was announced. There would not have been any need to align with Jayant Chaudhary (RLD). What is the intention behind this?” he said.